How To Create a Tilt-Shift Effect In GIMP

Learn how to create a Tilt-Shift Effect in GIMP. The Tilt-Shift effect is a popular Photographic style. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to create a real scene look like a miniature model using GIMP for any image you want using the Gradient tool, Gaussian Blur filter and adjusting Hue-Saturation. This works best on subjects taken from above such as busy traffic or cityscape, but it can be applied to any image you want.

Final result.

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Step 1: Open image

Use File>Open... command in the top menu or else just press Ctrl+O to open your image. The Open Image dialog box appears, allowing you to navigate to the file and click on its name. Navigate through your folders in the Places panel and the Name panel until your images' name appears in the Name panel. Click the image you want to open. When an image file is selected, you can view the preview of the image file at the right-hand side of the box, although it's not easy to find an image based on a thumbnail. Click Open.

For this GIMP tutorial, I'll use this image, 598731, downloaded from Pixabay.

Step 2: Enable Quick Mask

Use Select>Toggle Quick Mask or else just press Shift+Q to activate the Quick Mask. When you activate the Quick Mask, the current layer will get red overlay color.

Step 3: Select the Gradient/Blend Tool

Select the Gradient Tool from the Toolbox or else you can use Tools>Paint Tools>Gradient. 

Make sure your foreground and background color are in black and white by pressing keyboard key D. 

In the Tool Options, select the FG and BG To Shape Bi-Linear.

Step 4: Apply the Blend Tool (Gradient)

Apply blend or gradient tool on the document. Click and drag the Gradient tool from the bottom of your image outwards while pressing the Ctrl key. Remove the Quick Mask by pressing Shift + Q.

Step 5: Apply the Gaussian Blur Filter

Now we'll apply the Gaussian Blur by going to Filters> Blur> Gaussian Blur... The Gaussian Blur dialog box appears. Here you can set the Blur Radius and choose RLE under the Blur Method. Click OK.

Step 6: Adjust Hue / Saturation

To get more realistic miniature effect look, sharpen the color by adding saturation. Use Colors> Hue-Saturation. The Hue-Saturation dialog box appears. Drag the saturation slider to the right. Then click OK.

Step 7: Save it

Use File>Save command in the top menu or else just press Ctrl+S to save your project file. The Save Image dialog box appears. Navigate to the folder where you want to store your project file. Type a name in the Name text box and leave the default GIMP (*.XCF) format. XCF is GIMP's native format and is useful because it stores everything about your image and will allow you to later edit your image in GIMP, in case you notice a problem. Click Save to store the project file.

Once you have finished, you will probably also want to export the image in a more widely used format, such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, etc.

There you have it! Tilt-Shift Lens Effect with GIMP.

More on GIMP Tutorials:

• Turn photo into sketch using GIMP
• Adding rain to a photo with GIMP
• Using GIMP to put an image inside text
• How to sharpen image with GIMP